Optics professor wins highest faculty award and Fraunhofer prize

April 8, 2010|By Megan Anderson, Special to the Orlando Sentinel

University of Central Florida professor Shin-Tson Wu has received many awards and honors over the course of his career. But over the past two months, Wu has added the highest faculty award from UCF and an internationally recognized prize to his list of accolades.

Wednesday morning at UCF's annual Founders' Day ceremony, Wu, a provost-distinguished professor of the College of Optics and Photonics, was declared a Pegasus Professor. The Pegasus Professor is an award given to professors who contribute excellence in teaching, research and service to the UCF community.

"It was exciting of course," Wu said. "To be recognized is an honor to any scholar. I'm happy that UCF has given me a stage to perform. Similarly, I am grateful for my group members and nominators."

Bahaa Saleh, dean of CREOL, nominated Wu for the Pegasus Professor award, but was unavailable to comment, as he is currently attending a conference.

This was not the only award Wu has recently received. Wu is also the 2010 winner of the Joseph Fraunhofer/Robert M. Burley Prize, an award from the Optical Society of America.

Wu is being recognized for his contribution to optical engineering through liquid crystal display, tunable photonics devices and adaptive focus lenses.

"Personally this is a great honor," Wu said. "Although it is the Optical Society of America, it is an internationally recognized award and I am really grateful and thank my nominators and endorsers for their great support."

Wu said that his research on liquid crystal display makes images as bright and clear as possible to be seen under a vast array of light and can be seen in cell phones, laptop computers and TVs.

"Everyone has benefited from this technology," Wu said.

He is now working on transflective displays that enable products like the iPhone to be readable under different kinds of light.

Terry Dorschner, the principle fellow at Raytheon Company, a defense and commercial technology company in Massachusetts, first met Wu in 1984 at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

Dorschner said he developed a close working relationship with Wu after their companies merged, and have continued their friendship ever since.

"We have a symbiotic relationship," Dorschner said. "I need his liquid crystal technology to develop high performance optical phased array systems, and he needs us for inspirationIt's a win-win situation and when both sides do an extra-special job, the results are sometimes reflected in major awards, like this one."

Dorschner was one of Wu's endorsers for the Joseph Fraunhofer/Robert M. Burley Prize. Dorschner said he decided to support Wu because he exemplifies the meaning of the award.

"Start by his being hands-down the world's expert on liquid crystals," Dorschner said. "But he's not just an academicHe bridges academics and industry in a way few people can, and that's at the heart of this award."

Tracy Xu, a third year graduate student in Wu's research group, said that after receiving any award Wu always sends an email to all of his students reminding them that it's also the group's award.

"It's very touching to receive that message," Xu said. "He never thinks it's all because of him. He believes that it is because of all of us working together."

Xu said she will never forget the most important lesson Wu has taught her.

"He always says, 'If you fail to make a plan, you plan to fail,'" said Xu. "He really tries to make you see that before you can do good research, you must be a good person."

Dorschner said that Wu's best attribute is that he is a natural teacher, who loves his job and loves working with his students.

"He 'takes care of them', meaning that he trains them well and gets them started in meaningful careers," Dorschner said. "He's also a brilliant researcher, one of the rare academics capable of bridging the gap between academia and industry."

For the Pegasus Professor award, Wu received a Pegasus statue, a Pegasus Professor medallion and $5,000. Wu will receive the Joseph Fraunhofer/Robert M. Burley Prize at the annual meeting of the Optical Society of America meeting, which includes a medal, a certificate and $3,000 prize.

Wu said he plans to continue his research on liquid crystal displays and photonics devices and hopes to set a good example for his students.

"I will continue to do relevant research and educate our students so that they can do better in the future and succeed in any challenge they face," Wu said. "I believe they will do better than me in their bright futures.